|
Trojans hold off T’Wolves |
|
Tuesday, 04 November 2008 |
 Kim Murrell/For the Daily News West Oktibbeha guard Deon Bedford breaks up court Monday during the Timberwolves’ 45-31 loss to New Hope. Bedford led West Oktibbeha with 14 points. By DON FOSTER
Starkville Daily News
MABEN — Defending 4A State Champion New Hope turned a one-point half-time deficit into a comfortable 45-31 triumph Monday night, giving the Trojans a sweep of the two-game menu.
The Lady Timber-wolves saw their bid to post a “W” in their 2008-09 home opener fall short, 49-42, but both West Oktibbeha editions kept the H.D. Morgan Gymnasium crowd on the edge of their seats most of the cool November evening.
The Timberwolves took a 14-13 lead into the locker room at half-time, that was before Jonathan Brandon unleashed four straight 3-point attempts from well beyond the arc. They all hit their mark to give the Trojans new life.
Brandon went on to score a team-best 16 points in the low-scoring game, all coming in the second half to spark the Trojans, who opened the season with a runaway, 94-46, win over Neshoba Central.
Needless to say, West Oktibbeha played exceptionally well on defense except for letting Brandon get into rhythm midway the third quarter when New Hope took a 35-23 lead.
Still, West Oktibbeha coach Joseph Landfair’s T’Wolves fought back to make one last run at the Trojans led by forward Deon Bedford, who finished with 14 points, and guard Zack Townsel with 10.
Kedrin Yates fed Bedford on a spectacular lob and slam in the opening half to bring the crowd to its feet while the T’Wolves’ whiz had three straight baskets midway through the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 45-29 before adding a pair of free throws to shave the margin to 45-31.
However, down the stretch, the Trojans had a little too much depth for the T’Wolves who only dressed six players with several players still out for football. Yates scored 4 points and Laquez Bedford scored 3 for undermanned West Oktibbeha.
For New Hope, Davis Lee and Victor Payne scored 6 each along with Jamal Richardson who had a pair of 3-pointers to help spark the Trojans.
Girls
New Hope 49, West Oktibbeha 42
The New Hope and West Oktibbeha girls battled to a 10-10 deadlock at the end of the first quarter before the Lady Trojans took a 25-20 halftime lead. The Lady T’Wolves cut the deficit to 34-31 at the end of the third quarter and made a bid to wrestle the lead midway the fourth quarter on back-to-back baskets by senior Andrea Brown (15 points) and Shamia Robinson (13 points), but the rally fell a little short.
West Oktibbeha first-year coach Shelia Young said while it would have been nice to get a win in the first home game of the young season that she was proud of the team.
“I thought we played hard especially on defense but we just fell a little short,” she said. “We made too many turnovers, and that’s something that we will work on, but overall, I thought we had a good effort against a pretty good team.”
New Hope (1-1) was led by Kell Petty with a game-high 17 points. Kia Edwards had 16. The Lady Trojans dropped their first game of the season to Nettleton.
The Lady T’Wolves, who dropped a tough 45-44 decision to Winona in their season opener over the weekend in the Ethel Tournament, did a nice job defending New Hope’s 6-2 Rachel Holliday, holding the gifted post player to 6 points.
West Oktibbeha’s Brittany Jones connected on the only two “3’s” of the contest and finished with 10 points. LaQuita Shumpert and Chelsey Jones had 3 points each.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 05 November 2008 )
|
